搬運(yùn)自：微信公眾號【評論搬一堆】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：Lynn Liu

校正：Ryan-Chopin

排版：Ryan-Chopin

The shiny soul-pop of Lizzo’s major label debut is something of a thesis on internalized and externalized confidence—so much so that the music can feel like a means to a greater end.

Lizzo在其唱片公司發(fā)行的首張專輯中賦予了閃亮的靈魂流行樂，在某種程度上是對內(nèi)化和外化信心的一種論述——且如此之多，以至于其中的音樂聽起來像是一種宏大的尾聲。

The precise moment of Lizzo’s transformation has been viewed?nearly 200,000 times. In 2014, the same year she released her frenzied rap debut?Lizzobangers, the rapper-singer-flautist participated in a web series called?The What’s Underneath Project.?In her episode, Lizzo sits on a stool before a brick wall and speaks warmly about the evolution of her self-image while shedding her clothing one piece at a time. First goes a plaid shirt, then a pair of retro Jordans, and a beanie, until she’s wearing just a bra and panties. Makeup mostly scrubbed and a teeny weeny afro forming a halo around her face, she is finally, fully herself. This literal disrobing, she has said, prompted an unexpected revelation that would go on to shape her life and her art.

Lizzo的轉(zhuǎn)型時刻大概已經(jīng)被瀏覽200,000次了，2014年，也就是她瘋狂推出自己的說唱處女作《Lizzobangers》的那一年，這位說唱歌手兼長笛手參加了一個名為“What’s under Project”的網(wǎng)絡(luò)系列節(jié)目。在這一集中，Lizzo坐在一堵磚墻前的凳子上，一邊熱情地談?wù)撝晕倚蜗蟮难葑?，一邊一件件地脫掉衣服。首先是格子衫，然后是一雙復(fù)古的喬丹鞋，再是一頂無檐小帽，最后她只剩下了內(nèi)衣和內(nèi)褲。她臉上大部分的妝容都卸掉了，一個小小的非洲式發(fā)型繞著她的臉形成了一個光環(huán)，最后，她終于完全恢復(fù)了本真。

That experience inspired her to write “My Skin,” the breakthrough rap-ballad from her 2015 album?Big Grrrl Small World. In an accompanying essay, she described the song as “a summoning of bodies: all shapes, sizes, and shades to unite in their pride, and wear their skin like the gift it is.” Since then, she has sharpened that sensibility, becoming a tireless cheerleader for herself and for millions of people she’ll never know.?Cuz I Love You, her first full-length on Atlantic, is something of a thesis on internalized and externalized confidence—so much so that the music can feel like a means to a greater end. The rollout for the album, featuring magazine covers and late-night talk show appearances, has been one extremely long yaaaaaaas, centering her welcome approach to body-positivity and self-love as much the soaring mid-chorus notes of the single “Juice” and her uncanny ability to play a flute while twerking.

這段經(jīng)歷啟發(fā)她創(chuàng)作了“My Skin”，這是她2015年專輯《Big Grrrl Small World》中突破性的說唱歌曲。在隨附的一篇文章中，她將這首歌描述為“對身體的召喚:所有的身材、尺碼和膚色都融合在他們的驕傲之中，將自身的膚色當(dāng)做禮物來穿戴。”從那以后，她的這種感覺越發(fā)強(qiáng)烈，她化身為那永不知疲倦的啦啦隊(duì)長，為自己以及數(shù)百萬素不相識的人代言。《Cuz I Love You》是她在Atlantic廠牌第一張完整專輯，它在某種程度上是關(guān)于對內(nèi)化和外化信心的一種論述——其如此之多，以至于其中的音樂聽起來像是一種更偉大的結(jié)束。這張專輯的首次亮相中，我們能看到雜志封面的外殼，聽到類似深夜脫口秀風(fēng)格的曲目，它的推出是一個極其漫長的過程，這張專輯展示了她對身材的自信和自愛的歡迎態(tài)度，以及單曲“Juice”中高漲的合唱音符，我們也能從中看到她邊跳電臀舞邊吹長笛的神奇技能。

Lizzo is clearly a talent. On songs like the soul-tinged “Cuz I Love You” and the naming-and-shaming “Jerome,” she bellows from somewhere deep within, her voice so powerful that it’s a surprise to learn she spent much of her life ashamed by it. Her?pledge?to be “ARETHA FRANKLIN FOR THE 2018 GENERATION” is evident, if not quite actualized; this generation’s Natasha Bedingfield is maybe more accurate. Songs like “Juice” or the equally upbeat “Soulmate” have enough sheen and universality to stand in for Bedingfield’s mid-aughts empowerment anthem “Unwritten” in any given rom-com or yogurt commercial. (Lizzo faced a minor scandal last year when she allowed one of her songs to be used in a campaign for Weight Watchers. Fans were critical of the decision because WW, despite a recent rebrand to health and wellness, reinforces diet culture, putting it fundamentally at odds with interpretations of Lizzo’s fat-positive principles. She eventually apologized.)

Lizzo顯然是個天才。在帶有靈魂色彩的“Cuz I Love You”和恥于命名的“Jerome”中，她發(fā)自內(nèi)心地呼喊著，她的聲音如此富有穿透力，以至于當(dāng)她得知自己一生中的大部分時間都為此感到羞恥時，她感到很驚訝。她的“2018年這一代的艾瑞莎·富蘭克林”(ARETHA FRANKLIN FOR THE 2018 GENERATION)誓言即使沒有完全實(shí)現(xiàn)，也是顯而易見的，說她是這一代人的娜塔莎·貝丁菲爾德(Natasha Bedingfield)或許更準(zhǔn)確?！癑uice”或同樣具有樂觀色彩的“Soulmate”等歌曲擁有足夠的光澤感，也更加大眾化，足以在任何一部浪漫喜劇或酸奶廣告中代替Bedingfield的“Unwritten”。(去年，Lizzo因允許自己的一首歌被用于Weight Watchers的宣傳活動而面臨一樁小丑聞。粉絲們對這一決定持批評態(tài)度，因?yàn)楸M管WW最近重新建立了健康和養(yǎng)生的品牌，但它強(qiáng)化了節(jié)食/飲食文化，從根本上違背了Lizzo以胖為美的原則，她最終為此道歉。)

Despite her obvious skill and charisma, some of the album’s 11 songs are burdened with overwrought production, awkward turns of phrase, and ham-handed rapping. It’s hard to imagine her earning a spot in the pantheon of great, or even good, rappers when the opening lines of “Like A Girl” have the energy of an “SNL” sketch: “Woke up feeling like I just might run for president/Even if there ain’t no precedent/Switching up the messaging/I’m about to add a little estrogen.” Later, alongside perpetually cool labelmate Gucci Mane on “Exactly How I Feel,” echoes of the Black Eyed Peas’ triumphant, if soulless, stadium-pop ring hollow. There are highlights throughout—nearly every song has multiple captivating hooks—but the album’s peak comes at its end, with “Lingerie,” the sexy closer that is essentially orgasm-as-song. It is tongue-in-cheek, but somehow the most sincere Lizzo we hear.

盡管她有顯著的技巧和魅力，這張專輯的11首歌曲中有一些聽起來像是在過度勞累中制作的，富含尷尬的措辭和笨拙說唱。很難想象她的收入已足以讓她前腳邁入偉大的萬神殿中,她作為說唱歌手的收入水平是極高的,“Like A Girl”的開場白有一種描述“SNL”的能量:“Woke up feeling like I just might run for president/Even if there ain’t no precedent/Switching up the messaging/I’m about to add a little estrogen.（醒來后感覺像是我可能競選總統(tǒng)/即使不是沒有先例/切換消息/我還要再來點(diǎn)雌性激素。）后來，她與炫酷的同公司的Gucci Mane一起合作了“Just How I Feel”一曲，像是在對黑眼豆豆功成名就的回響。每首歌都有亮點(diǎn)——幾乎每首歌都有多個迷人的之處——但這張專輯的高潮是在“Lingerie”這首歌的結(jié)尾之處。這首歌聽起來像是在半開玩笑，但不知為何，我們聽到的卻是最真誠的Lizzo。

She joins the proposition for genreless music at an interesting time, with artists as varied as Halsey and BTS and Khalid confirming the inevitability of such a future. “I’m the genre. My voice is the genre,” Lizzo said in a recent interview. And that’s technically true; she is what ties together the fun, anti-gravity pop of “Tempo,” featuring an inventive, compelling verse from Missy Elliott, and the Pussy-hat optimism of “Better In Color.” But really, much of Cuz I Love You sounds like an improvement on any given major-label writing session. “Soulmate,” for example, plays like it could just as easily, if more cloyingly, be performed by someone like Meghan Trainor. (Lizzo and Trainor share a producer in Ricky Reed.)

她在一個有趣的時間點(diǎn)加入了無流派的音樂主張，像Halsey、BTS和Khalid這樣的藝術(shù)家證實(shí)了這種趨勢的必然性。“我就是風(fēng)格，我的聲音自成一派”，Lizzo在最近的一次采訪中說到。這在技術(shù)層面上來說是無口厚非的，正是她把與Missy Elliott?合作的單曲“Tempo”中那些有趣的、反重力的流行元素與“Better In Color”中象征女性（ 譯者注：原文為“Pussy?Hat”，“Pussy Hat”帶有兩個尖尖角，象征女性的雙腿自己，而整個帽子就是女性生理器官的符號化。[解釋源于豆瓣]）的樂觀主義聯(lián)系在了一起。但說真的，《Cuz I Love You》的大部分歌曲像是主流廠牌的創(chuàng)作者們對他們已有作品進(jìn)行的再加工一樣。例如，“Soulmate”似乎很容易就能被演繹出來，更倒胃口的是，像Meghan Trainor這樣的人能夠輕松地演唱這些歌。(Lizzo和Meghan Trainor的制作人同為Ricky Reed。)

In a piercing essay last month about the value of identity politics, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams wrote of recent “demographic and technological changes” that have “[bolstered] demands for inclusion and raising expectations in communities that had long been conditioned to accept a slow pace of change.” She continued: “These changes have encouraged activists and political challengers to make demands with a high level of specificity—to take the identities that dominant groups have used to oppress them and convert them into tools of democratic justice.” Of course, Abrams was focused on the activism galvanized by marginalization.

上個月，前喬治亞州州長候選人Stacey Abrams在一篇關(guān)于身份政治價值的尖銳文章中，提到了最近的“人口和技術(shù)變化”，這些變化“(增強(qiáng)了)對包容的需求，并提高了長期習(xí)慣接受對變化緩慢的社區(qū)的期望”。她接著說:“這些變化鼓勵積極分子和政治挑戰(zhàn)者提出更高層次的具體要求——把占主導(dǎo)地位的群體用來壓迫他們，并將他們的身份轉(zhuǎn)化為民主正義的工具?！?/strong>當(dāng)然，Abrams關(guān)注的是邊緣化引發(fā)的激進(jìn)主義。